Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Pope Francis tackles issues and embraces crowds

Pope Francis forged common cause Wednesday with President Barack Obama on climate change, immigration and inequality, as the popular pontiff signaled he would not sidestep issues that have deeply divided Americans.

A central appeal of the Catholic Church is that it remains firm in its convictions over centuries, instead of blowing with the wind like some of the soon-to-be-extinct Protestant sects.

The world needs a fixed moral compass more than it needs another Church that shifts its positions with the Progressive narrative of the moment.

This Pope has a choice to make with consequences for his soul, his papacy, and his legacy.

America is a nation of immigrants, and always will be. That is the message we should be sending to the world, again.

That doesn't mean open borders, or pandering to special interest groups that will vote one way or another. It means having a principled policy of admitting aliens who truly want to adopt American values--which means tougher requirements for citizenship, too.

While we're at it, we probably should require the native-born to go through the same education process about why the U.S. is great. Many existing citizens seem to have forgotten that.

There is still much we don't know about the effect of CO2 on climate and global warming. Alarmists base their positions on the behavior of only one part—greenhouse effects—of the overall climate system, major parts of which we still don't understand well.

I would posit the hypothesis, meaning something to be tested, that the more CO2 we pump into the lower atmosphere, the more seeps into the upper atmosphere to help keep solar radiation from coming through.

There is therefore a balance between greenhouse warming and upper atmosphere cooling for which we don't know the overall net effect. It is suggestive, however, that even as CO2 concentrations in the lower atmosphere have increased, during the last fifteen years the warming predicted by existing models has not occurred.

Pope Francis’ views of capitalism are probably shaped by growing up in a country where inequities are large. It creates a perspective that is wrongly balanced against capitalism.

The Pope's Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium has a better balance and recognition that capitalism is merely a neutral process shaped by capitalists and their morality.

In the Exhortation, Pope Francis calls on capitalists and consumers to be more aware of their obligations towards their fellow men. Yet in his spoken words, Pope Francis makes unwarranted accusations against the system itself. I think he is wrong.

Individuals who have never experienced free markets and have been taught that free markets are bad, as is the case in Argentina and other socialist countries, predictably have a low opinion of free markets.

The problem is made worse with liberal / socialist trends and regulations. Most everyone recognizes the negative productivity effects. But the liberal tax is made worse with the every expanding government entitlement spending, sapping motivation and making each new member of society seen as a liability that will consume resources, rather than an asset that will help build the future, as was the case for the first 200 years of our nation.

The final component is poor public education from teacher unions who are supported by liberal parasites, reducing the effectiveness of each student for a life time. Given the inter-connectedness of immigration, entitlement and poor education, the solution will be difficult. But if we address these three, prosperity at a level we can't now imagine, is possible.

The lessons of history are clear. Free market capitalism consistently delivers a better standard of living than socialism over time. Even China has moved toward free market capitalism, resulting in huge growth and improvement in living standards in China.

Note, capitalism is private ownership and control. Socialism is, by definition, government ownership and control. I challenge anyone to provide an example of where socialism has led to an improvement in standard of living, particularly of the poor, over any 30 year period. Capitalism has plenty of success examples.

Pope Francis should be looking at the formative effects of government rather than those of a neutral unthinking capitalism. I say this with great respect, but better yet, he should stick to spiritual matters and stay out of the economic policy field.